


Just to feel you breathe

by Korrigan131



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-03
Updated: 2012-05-03
Packaged: 2017-11-15 08:44:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/525419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Korrigan131/pseuds/Korrigan131
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felipe’s heartbeat is one of Rob’s most treasured sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just to feel you breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Brief warning for mentions of Felipe's accident.  
> I’m pretty sure every Rolipe fangirl has a post-Hungary fic in them somewhere. This is mine.

**Hungary, 2009.**  
  
Felipe’s eyes start to flutter, and through half-closed lids the first thing he sees is Ferrari red, just a fuzzy blur of colour against a non-descript, bright, white background.  
  
“Felipe?” The voice is familiar, but sounds distant, as he drifts up into semi-consciousness. “ _Felipe_.” The voice is more insistent now. Bright red, dark hair, that voice; _Rob_. Felipe mumbles something that could be Rob’s name, but might just be a sound, and pulls his eyes open as best he can.  
  
Rob is sat in the chair by the hospital bed, leaning forward, holding Felipe’s hand clasped in both of his, where it lies on top of the neatly made bed sheets. Felipe’s eyes struggle to focus, but even though his head is fuzzy and his sight even more so he can tell Rob looks dreadful - tired and ill, paler even than normal - and he can’t read the strange twist of an expression on his engineer’s face.  
  
He tries again to speak.  
  
“Rob.” It comes out hoarse and rough, but just about audible. “You look like shit.”  
  
Rob grins, delighted and relieved and shocked all at the same time, and starts to laugh, squeezing his driver’s hand so tight it hurts, and laughing, laughing like he can’t stop, settling into a genuine, proper laugh before it has the chance to turn beyond mildly hysterical. He pulls one hand away briefly to rub the base of his palm over his eyes, which are red and shining more than they should be when he’s smiling like that.  
  
“Coming from you right now, that’s a bit rich,” Rob eventually replies, still smiling, but Felipe’s expression of confusion makes Rob check himself. “You don’t know where you are, do you?” Felipe shakes his head, a slow roll on the pillows more than an actual shake. “You’re in hospital, sunshine. Took a spring to the head. We, uh...” Rob stops, biting his lip hard and looking away, and shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter, you’re here now.” He pauses, just looking at Felipe for a moment. Suddenly he gets out of his chair, sits himself on the edge of Felipe’s bed, and leans right over to wrap his arms around the bits of his driver he can without moving or jostling him, his head on the hospital-gown-covered chest in an awkward half hug. Felipe can feel him shaking (and obviously trying not to) as Rob all but clings to him.  
  
“Is okay Rob, ‘m okay...” Felipe’s hand moves to the back of Rob’s head, stroking weakly.  
  
“Don’t ever do that to me again, Felipe. Don’t you _dare_ ever leave me like that.” Rob’s voice is uneven and breathy. “I couldn’t... Fuck’s sake Felipe, _I love you_.” _Fuck_ , he just said that, didn’t he?  
  
But Felipe’s hand tightens in Rob’s hair. “I love you as well,” he almost whispers, without ny hesitation at all.  
  
Rob doesn’t dare squeeze him any tighter, but he holds on as if Felipe might slip through his fingers any second, his eyes screwed shut against their hot pricking, which is once again at complete odds with the smile he couldn’t fight if he wanted to. He doesn't trust his voice to stay even, so he doesn't say anything else. He doesn't need too though - he's said everything that's important now.  
  
After a moment or two Felipe’s hand relaxes, and when Rob pulls back his eyes have fallen shut again. But the nameless hospital machinery is still beeping steadily, so Rob knows he doesn’t need to worry. Not anymore.  
  
He should probably move - it’s not the most comfortable of positions, and his weight on Felipe like this can’t be doing him any good, but... Just a moment more. Rob stays where he is, his head still on Felipe’s chest, feeling it rise and fall as he just breathes, and listening to the thud of his heartbeat in concert with the rhythm of the heart monitor. Thud- _thud_. Thud- _thud_. _Still here. Still here._  
  
*  
  
 **Bahrain, 2010.**  
  
“Surely _I_ should be leaning on _your_ chest? Your head is heavy and you are too big.”  
  
“Shush F’lipe. I like it here.” Rob snuggles closer in the huge hotel bed, his leg kicked over one of Felipe’s, his arm wrapped around his waist, and his shoulder tucked into the gap between Felipe’s chest and arm, said arm curled around the engineer’s back, holding him close. “I like listening to your heart beat,” he mumbles, a playful but shy confession.  
  
“That is what it does, Rob, all the time. If I make it stop will you move?”  
  
Rob goes slightly stiff, tightening his hold almost imperceptibly on his driver, and doesn’t reply.  
  
“Rob?”  
  
“Please don’t say that,” Rob eventually answers, his voice quiet.  
  
“Oh. Sorry.” Rob pushes himself up onto one elbow, looking down at Felipe.  
  
“No, don’t you dare apologise, don’t you dare.” He runs his hand over the bare skin of the tanned chest below him. “Just, I forget that you don’t remember, well, much of it at all...”  
  
“I remember you said you love me.”  
  
Rob smiles, before leaning down and kissing him, a tender press of lips, his other hand on the side of Felipe's face as his arms wrap around Rob's torso.  
  
“I thought I’d missed the chance to tell you.” Their faces are still so close their lips are almost still touching, Rob’s breath ghosting onto Felipe’s skin as he strokes his thumb down Felipe’s cheek.  
  
“You cannot get rid of me so easy,” Felipe grins.  
  
“I never want to get rid of you, you stupid git.”  
  
“Never?”  
  
“Never.”  
  
“Good, because I am not ever letting you go either.”  
  
Felipe pulls Rob down into a kiss that demonstrates very clearly indeed just how much he means that, rolling their bodies together until the sheets are tangled around them, and they’re at risk of not getting any sleep that night whatsoever.


End file.
